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'Hudy William Ledbetter', (January 23, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. He is best known as 'Leadbelly' or 'Lead Belly' (see below).
Although he most commonly played the twelve string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, concertina, and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad "John Hardy", he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar. In other recordings he just sings while clapping his hands or stomping his foot.
The topics of Lead Belly's music covered a wide range of subjects, including gospel songs; blues songs about women, liquor and racism; and folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding and dancing. He also wrote songs concerning the newsmakers of the day, such as President Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, the Scottsboro Boys and multi-millionaire Howard Hughes.

Contents

Biography

Controversy about Lead Belly's birth date

Early life

Prison years

Life after prison

Musical legacy

The meaning behind the exclamation "Haah!"

"Lead Belly" versus "Leadbelly"

Songs

Selected discography

The Library of Congress recordings

Other compilations

Samples

References

External links

Biography

Controversy about Lead Belly's birth date

Lead Belly was born January 23, 1888, although his gravestone gives his year of birth as 1889. Lead Belly's date of birth has been a matter of debate. The earliest year had been given at 1885, although other sources stated either 1888 or 1889. According to the 1900 census, Hudy (the spelling given in the census) is one of two listed children (the other is his step-sister, Australia Carr), of Wes and Sallie (Brown) Ledbetter of Justice Precinct 2, Harrison County, Texas. Wesley and Sallie were legally wed on February 26, 1888, shortly after Lead Belly's birth, even though they had lived together as husband and wife for years. The 1900 census, differing from the usual census in that it lists the month and year of birth, rather than just the age, states the birth year of 'Hudy' Ledbetter to be 1888 and the month listed as January; Huddie's age is listed as twelve. The census of 1910 and the census of 1930 confirm 1888 as the year of birth.
The day of his birth has also been debated. The most common date given is January 20, but other sources suggest he was born on January 21 or 29. The only document we have that Ledbetter, himself, helped fill out is his World War II draft registration from 1942 where he gives his birth date as January 23, 1889.

Early life

Lead Belly was born to Wesley and Sallie Ledbetter as Huddie William Ledbetter in a plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana, but the family moved to Leigh, Texas, when he was five. By 1903, Lead Belly was already a 'musicianer', a singer and guitarist of some note. He performed for nearby Shreveport, Louisiana audiences in St. Paul's Bottom, a notorious redlight district in the city. Lead Belly began to develop his own style of music after exposure to a variety of musical influences on Shreveport's Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottom.
At the time of the 1910 census, Lead Belly, still officially listed as 'Hudy', was living next door to his parents with his first wife, Aletha "Lethe" Henderson, who at the time of the census was seventeen years old, and was, therefore, fifteen at the time of their marriage in 1908. It was also there that he received his first instrument, an accordion, from his uncle, and by his early 20s, after fathering at least two children, he left home to find his living as a guitarist (and occasionally, as a laborer). Lead Belly would later claim that as a youth he would "make it" with 8 to 10 women a night.

Prison years

Lead Belly's boastful spirit and penchant for the occasional skirmish sometimes led him into trouble with the law, and in January 1918 he was thrown into prison for the second time, this time after killing one of his relatives, Will Stafford, in a fight. He was incarcerated in Sugar Land, Texas and it is there that he got the inspiration for the song ''Midnight Special''. ^[1] It is said that he was released two years into his 35 year sentence after writing a song appealing to Governor Pat Morris Neff for his freedom. Lead Belly had swayed Governor Neff by appealing to his strong religious values. That, in combination with good behavior (including entertaining by playing for the guards and fellow prisoners), was Ledbetter's ticket out of jail.
In 1930, Lead Belly was back in prison, this time in Louisiana for attempted homicide. It was there, three years later, that he was "discovered" by musicologists John and Alan Lomax, who were enchanted by his talent, passion and singularity as a performer, and recorded hundreds of his songs on portable recording equipment for the Library of Congress. The following year Lead Belly was once again pardoned, this time after a petition for his early release was taken to Louisiana Governor O.K. Allen by the Lomaxes. The petition was on the other side of a recording of one of his most popular songs, "Goodnight Irene". But records show he was released due to good behavior, and mention nothing of the song.
Ledbetter first acquired his famous nickname while he was in prison; his fellow inmates dubbed him "Lead Belly" as a play on his last name and a testament to his physical toughness. For instance, when one of the inmates tried to stab him in the neck (which left him with a scar), during his second prison term, he took the knife away and in turn almost killed his attacker with it. He then used the nickname as a pseudonym when he was recording, and the name stuck ever since.

Life after prison

Indebted to the Lomaxes, Lead Belly allowed Alan to take him under his wing, and in late 1934 migrated to New York City with him, where he attained fame, though not fortune. In 1935 he married Martha Promise and began recording with the American Record Corporation (ARC), but achieved little commercial success with these records. Part of the reason for the poor record sales may have been because ARC insisted he record blues songs rather than the folk for which he was better known. In any case, Lead Belly continued to struggle financially. In 1939 he was back in jail for assault.
Upon his release in 1940, Lead Belly returned to a surging New York folk scene, and befriended the likes of Woody Guthrie and a young Pete Seeger. During the first half of the decade he recorded for RCA, the Library of Congress, and for Moe Asch (future founder of Folkways Records), and in 1944 headed to California, where he recorded strong sessions for Capitol Records. In 1949 he began his first European tour, but fell ill before its completion, and was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Lead Belly died later that year in New York City, and was buried in the Shiloh Baptist Church cemetery in Mooringsport, 8 miles west of Blanchard, Louisiana, in Caddo Parish.

Musical legacy

Lead Belly's vast songbook, much of which he adapted from previous sources, has provided material for numerous folk, country, pop and rock acts since his time, including:

★ ABBA, who recorded both "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" and "Midnight Special"

★ Pete Seeger's band The Weavers (who had a hit with "Goodnight Irene" the year after Lead Belly's death)

★ The Animals (who had a hit with "The House of the Rising Sun" in 1964 and See See Rider, in 1966)

★ Ram Jam (who recorded Black Betty in 1977)

★ Creedence Clearwater Revival (who recorded a popular version of "Midnight Special" and "Cotton Fields" in 1969)

★ Nirvana (who covered "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" in 1993 on their ''MTV Unplugged'' performance). Kurt Cobain prefaces the song by referring to Lead Belly as "my favorite performer... ''our'' favorite performer". Cobain also mentions an offer that was made to him by a man representing the Lead Belly estate to buy Lead Belly's guitar for $500,000. Nirvana's 2004 box set ''With the Lights Out'' contains four Lead Belly covers: "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"; "They Hung Him On A Cross", "Ain't It A Shame" and an instrumental cover of "Grey Goose".

★ Mark Lanegan also covered "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" for his album ''The Winding Sheet'' (1990), with Kurt Cobain participating

★ Davy Graham covered "Leavin' Blues"

★ The Rolling Stones adapted "The Bourgeois Blues" for "When The Whip Comes Down".

★ Van Morrison's first performance as a child was "Good Night, Irene", and he later recorded the song with Lonnie Donegan. In the title track to ''Astral Weeks'', Morrison alludes to meeting Huddie Ledbetter in heaven.

★ Bryan Ferry also covered "Good Night, Irene" for his album, "Frantic"

★ Lead Belly has also been covered by Ry Cooder, Lonnie Donegan, Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Billy Childish (who named his son Huddie), Mungo Jerry, Nirvana, Paul King, Michelle Shocked, Tom Waits, British Sea Power, Rod Stewart, Ernest Tubb, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The White Stripes, The Fall, The Doors, Smog, and Raffi, among many others.

★ Lead Belly has been mentioned in songs by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Pearl Jam, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Dead Milkmen, Bubbi Morthens (an Icelandic musician), Dulaney Banks and Stone Temple Pilots

★ Nigel Blackwell impersonates Lead Belly in the Half Man Half Biscuit song "24 Hour Garage People"

★ Led Zeppelin adapted 'Gallis Pole' into 'Gallows Pole' on their third album

★ Weddings Parties Anything have recorded 'Bourgouis Blues'

★ Rory Gallagher covered 'Western Plain', his version going by the title 'Out On The Western Plain'

★ The Los Angeles based punk rock group X recorded Lead Belly's "Dancin' With Tears In My Eyes" as a tribute to singer Exene Cervenka's sister Mary, who had been killed in a car crash earlier. The song appears on their 1982 album Under The Big Black Sun, most of the material of which was about Mary Cervenka's tragic, untimely death.

The meaning behind the exclamation "Haah!"

In some of the recordings where Lead Belly accompanied himself, he would make an unusual type of grunt between his verses. He would do this grunt, "Haah!", through many of his songs, such as, ''Looky Looky Yonder'', ''Take this Hammer'', ''Linin' Track'' and ''Julie Ann Johnson''. It gave a somewhat catchy sound to the songs. In a video of Lead Belly singing ''Take this Hammer''[1], he explains that, "Every time the men say 'haah', the hammer falls. The hammer rings, and we swing, and we sing", an apparent reference to prisoners' work songs . The grunt represents the tired deep breaths the men would take while working, singing and pausing in cadence with the work.

"Lead Belly" versus "Leadbelly"

Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly," Ledbetter himself spelled it "Lead Belly." This is also the usage on his tombstone [2][3], as well as the Lead Belly Foundation.

Songs

''See: List of Lead Belly songs.''

Selected discography

The Library of Congress recordings

Lead Belly's complete Library of Congress recordings, done by John and Alan Lomax from 1934 to 1943, were released in a six volume series by Rounder Records in the early-to-mid 1990s:

★ ''Midnight Special'' (1991, Rounder Records)

★ ''Gwine Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In'' (1991, Rounder Records)

★ ''Let It Shine on Me'' (1991, Rounder Records)

★ ''The Titanic'' (1994, Rounder Records)

★ ''Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen'' (1994, Rounder Records)

★ ''Go Down Old Hannah'' (1995, Rounder Records)

Other compilations

★ ''Huddie Ledbetter's Best'' (1989, BGO Records) - contains Lead Belly's recordings made for Capitol Records in 1944 in California.

★ ''King of the 12-String Guitar'' (1991, Sony/ Legacy Records) - a collection of blues songs and prison ballads recorded in 1935 in New York City for the American Record Company, including previously unreleased alternate takes.

★ ''Lead Belly's Last Sessions'' (1994, Smithsonian Folkways) - a four disc box set containing Lead Belly's final sessions, recorded in late 1948 in New York City. These were his only commercial recordings done on magnetic tape.

★ ''Lead Belly Sings for Children'' (1999, Smithsonian Folkways) - includes the 1960 Folkways album ''Negro Folk Songs for Young People'' in its entirety, and five of the six tracks from the 1941 album ''Play Parties in Song and Dance as Sung by Lead Belly'', recorded for Moe Asch, as well as other songs recorded for Asch from 1941 to 1948, and one previously unreleased track, a radio broadcast of "Take this Hammer."

★ ''Private Party November 21, 1948'' (2000, Document Records) - contains Lead Belly's intimate performance at a private party in late 1948 in Minneapolis.

★ ''Take This Hammer'' (2003, Smithsonian Folkways) - collects all 26 songs Lead Belly recorded for RCA in 1940, half of which feature the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet.

Samples

★ of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" from Wikimedia Commons

References

1. Lomax, Alan, (editor). ''Folk Song USA''. New American Library.

White, Gary; Stuart, David; Aviva, Elyn. "Music in Our World". 2001. ISBN 0-07-027212-3. (p. 196)

External links

★ "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" MP3 file on The Internet Archive

★ "Ledbetter, Huddie (Leadbelly)" in the Handbook of Texas Online

★ The Leadbelly Web

★ The Lead Belly Foundation

★

★ All Music Guide

★ Video of Lead Belly singing Take This Hammer

★ Recording of Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie live on WNYC Radio, Dec. 1940, with commentary by WNYC radio producer Henrietta Yurchenco

★ Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures